Abstract

OpenIndiana launched: 14th September 2010

We are proud to announce OpenIndiana, an exciting new distribution of OpenSolaris, built by the community, for the community - available for immediate download! OpenIndiana is a continuation of the OpenSolaris legacy and aims to be binary and package compatible with Oracle Solaris 11 and Solaris 11 Express. Our first build is from our development branch suitable for testing. We are also working on a stable branch, will receive regular security and bug updates making it suitable for use in production completely free of charge.

Bullet Point Summary

More of a spork than a fork, combines official Solaris source with community enhancements

Drop in replacement for OpenSolaris distribution

Live ISO from our development branch now available!

Stable branch to follow soon

Stable branch to be a production-ready OS with security updates & bug fixes

Part of The Illumos Foundation

Intends to use the Illumos project in a future release, so closed source binaries are replaced with open ones

In the mean time, Illumos available as optional set of packages

Community governed and run - not affiliated with Oracle

CDDL/BSD/MIT Licensed

x86 Architecture only at present, SPARC to follow at a later date

Actively looking for community members to get involved - come join us!

OpenIndiana – A Community Distribution

OpenIndiana is a brand new distribution of OpenSolaris, constructed by the community, for the community. Our primary goal is to be a binary and package compatible drop in replacement for the official OpenSolaris and forthcoming Solaris 11 and Solaris 11 Express releases.

This project was created to address the longstanding issue that the OpenSolaris distribution has constructed entirely by Sun/Oracle, not by the community. Depending on a single commercial entity has led to several issues, notably that bug fixes and security updates are only available via a paid for support subscription, that community participation has been limited in steering the direction of the operating system, and that commercial decisions have led to stricter licensing terms.

We believe that this distribution is a necessary next step in the evolution of the OpenSolaris legacy, one that the wider community has been desperately waiting for. By engaging the community, we can deliver true transparency, deliver regular security updates and bug fixes, and bring peace of mind to our users by providing a certain future for the operating system.

Independence and cooperation

OpenIndiana is about gaining independence and security, whilst cooperating and sharing our efforts with Oracle to benefit the greater OpenSolaris community. We intend to foster a friendly, open and active environment for developers to join us and get involved, to develop the operating system in new directions and take it to levels that were simply not possible under Sun/Oracle's stewardship.

We intend to work hard with the Illumos project to open source the remaining closed source binaries, making the OpenIndiana distribution a true open source operating system. We hope that this will speed adoption and and acceptance within the open source community.

We intend to make developing the OpenSolaris operating system easier than ever, by fully documenting the build process and enhancing it to the point that anyone can quickly and easily get involved and compile the operating system from scratch.

Lastly, we intend to enhance the OpenSolaris operating system's ease of use, such that Linux users can make the transition with as little pain as possible. Key examples of how we intend to do this include making far more free and open source software available for our distribution, working with 3rd party software projects so they compile out of the box on Solaris, and providing excellent, easy to understand documentation.

We also believe OpenSolaris excels as a server platform, with enterprise features found in no other operating system, such as the ZFS filesystem, Zones, the Service Management Framework, the Fault Management system, the COMSTAR iSCSI/FCoE framework, and the Crossbow virtualised network stack. Combined with bug and security fixes, our stable branch will provide one of the best free server operating systems available on the market.

Current Status

Our first development release, oi_147, is now available for download! It is available in 3 download formats - a Live DVD with a graphical installer which installs a full desktop environment, a Text installer CD which installs a minimal server install, and the Automated Installer ISO which allows performing a custom install via XML files.

It is also possible to upgrade your OpenSolaris install to OpenIndiana via the IPS PKG system. See our website for details.

OpenIndiana is a brand new project and as such, still in active development. Our initial development builds are subject to rapid change, and may have major bugs or issues. Our first release has received virtually no testing. Please do report bugs in our bug tracker, and stay tuned for our stable branch.

Getting Involved

Our success as a distribution depends upon the success of our community, which is why we would like to invite all those interested in the future of OpenSolaris to participate and get involved!

We have many resources from which you can get started, including our Wiki, Mailing Lists and IRC Channel. We have development servers available which can be booked, publicly available IPS development repositories for updating to the latest builds, and mercurial repositories for checking out the latest source code.

Further, we have a list of vacencies on our website which we are actively seeking to fill.

So what are you waiting for - follow one of the links below and get jump straight in!